When will Kolkata’s oldest tram route be back, ask commuters
Times of India | 27 May 2024
Kolkata: Uncertainty shrouds the operation of the oldest tram route in the city in its 151st anniversary year, with the West Bengal Transport Corporation’s (WBTC) reluctance to relay the Dalhousie tram loop after the metro authority cleared the place for tram movement. Significantly, the metro authority has already paid WBTC the cost for restoring the loop and compensation for the tram’s non-operation because of the temporary closure of the Dalhousie loop to build the BBD Bag station of East-West Metro.
The tram track running through B B Ganguly Street from Dalhousie to Sealdah is part of the oldest tram route along which the first horse-drawn tram of the city ran from Armenian Ghat to Sealdah (3.9 km) on Feb 24, 1873. Tram was the only mode of transport available for hundreds of Sealdah-bound passengers from Dalhousie every evening during the peak hours. Now, in the absence of the tram service, hundreds of passengers walk down BB Ganguly Street to reach Sealdah to catch trains.
“WBTC floated a tender for building the Dalhousie loop. But in the last few months, they did nothing to restore the loop, quite contrary to the definite Calcutta High Court order. When we inquired, they said that it is because of city police objection that they could not invest in building the loop,” said Calcutta Tram Users’ Association (CTUA) president Debasish Bhattacharya, who has been relentless in his struggle against the willingness of doing away with tram by successive state govts. A senior WBTC officer refused to comment on this on the pretext of the tram being a ‘sub judice case’.
Doing away with the Dalhousie loop would cause the death of as many as 11 tram routes. “Besides being the oldest tram route, the Dalhousie loop has immense significance. It is as important a fulcrum of the city’s tram operation as the Esplanade loop is. This reluctance to create the Dalhousie loop will be a very costly blunder and doing away with it is akin to abolition of the city’s tram,” said Bhattacharya.
By not restoring the tramways, the authorities have shown disrespect to the high court order where the chief justice specifically instructed them to “restore, maintain and preserve” the system. “They have done nothing in this direction. The authority is indirectly sabotaging all tram depots and the rolling stocks,” he added.
Ex-CTC staff of Nonapukur Workshop Subir Bose said, the work culture at Nonapukur is as efficient as before. A single coach tram can be built there for around Rs 14 lakh. Most of the staff are keen to ensure preservation oftrams. He added that tram manufacturing machines and tools are being sold off from the workshop, a recent development.